I was surprised to read that Jack Elam was named director of the Kosciusko County Historical Society’s Old Jail Museum, because I thought he was dead.
What was the middle name of wild-eyed actor Jack Elam's older sister?
Monday, March 24, 2008
Genealogue Challenge #121
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Alice
according to Wikipedia, William Scott Elam was born in Miami, Arizona, to Millard Elam and the former Alice Amelia Kerby. Alice died in 1924, when young Jack was not quite four years of age. Afterwards, he was reared by relatives in unhappy circumstances. By 1930, he was once again living with his father, older sister, Mildred, and their stepmother, Flossie.
He grew up picking cotton, and as a Boy Scout, he lost the sight in his left eye after another Scout threw a pencil at him at a troop meeting.[citation needed] He was a student of both Miami High School in Gila County and Phoenix Union High School in Maricopa County and graduated from the latter in the late 1930s.
He attended Santa Monica Junior College in California and subsequently became an accountant in Hollywood and, at one time, manager of the Bel Air Hotel in Los Angeles.
Assuming this is correct, the Millard Elam family in Miami Ward 2 is probably our group in the 1920 census. In that Census, Mildred is 4 months , and listed as Mildred A. Elam. With a mother named Alice Amelia, it's probably a pretty safe bet that one of those is Mildred's middle name...
A Rootweb genealogy here records her middle name as Alice, and lists a marriage to a gentleman named Bird as well as her 1977 death in Mesa, Arizona.
Jack Elam's birth certificate is
here
Alice Kirby Elam's death certificate is here and her cemetery transcription is found at The Arizona Genweb site
A listing at familysearch.org for Millard Elam, shows three wives, and lists Mildred's middle name as Alyce
Jack Elam, who was born William Scott Elam, had an older sister named Mildred ALICE Elam.
She was listed in the 1920 census as only Mildred A. Elam, but in checking for her birth registration in the Arizona Genealogy Birth and Death Certificates at :
http://genealogy.az.gov/
I came across not her registration, but the death record of her daughter, Olga Victoria CHENEY form 1945. On this document, Mildred is listed as Mildred Alice Elam, born in Miami, AZ, which is where she was living in the 1920 and 1930 US census records.
Also, her mother's first name was Alice, which makes this middle name significant.
Sources:
1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2002. Census Place: Miami, Gila, Arizona; Roll: 57; Page: 11B; Enumeration District: 42.
1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2005. Miami Ward 2, Gila, Arizona; Roll: T625_47; Page: 14B; Enumeration District: 50.
ALICE?
The 1920 has "A" as the middle initial.
This family tree has her middle name as Alice but I haven't yet confirmed it with any other sources. http://awt.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=roythompson&id=I6101
According to the New Family Search database, her full name is Mildred Alice Elam. She was a member of the LDS Church (Mormon) during her lifetime.
I found a death certificate of the 5 year old daughter of Mildred Alice Hayner here:
http://genealogy.az.gov/azdeath/075/10752466.pdf
I had found the first name, Mildred, in Wikipedia.
Debbie
Yup, it was Alice. Jack also had at least one half-brother, born 1937 in Stanislaus County, California.
Actually, Jack also has an older half-sister, Naomi Elam, born 22 Dec 1909 in Alameda county, CA to his father's first wife, Adelta Nelson.